Average and median home prices in metro Albuquerque continue to nudge down. But that’s about the only less than cheery news from the January sales report from the Greater Albuquerque Association Realtors. GAAR released the report Wednesday. See www.gaar.com.

Even the sales price news isn’t all bad, because the declines are only a few percent on a year over year basis. Albuquerque just hasn’t had the price collapses of Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada, and much of California. The January 2010 median price was $172,240, down 1.6% from January 2009 for a single family detached home. The average price was $205,624, a 4.3% drop from January 2009.

There were 349 single family detached homes sold in Albuquerque during January. That’s a 7.7% increase from January 2009. The January sales figure, well down from December’s 543 sales, appears to be the cold-weather low. That’s because January’s figure for pending sales—740—is a 55% jump from December. Pending sales in one month provide a leading indicator for sales closed the following month.

The number of homes offered for sales, called the “inventory,” continues to drop. The metro inventory was 4,766 in January, down 10% from January 2009 and down 14% from 5525 in January 2008.

To be sure, some of these sales are pushed by the tax credit for first-time home buyers. Others are sales of foreclosures. But whatever the source, people who buy houses tend to buy furniture and appliances and pay gross receipts taxes, behavior our state and local governments covet.